Branstad to take action allowing lead shot in dove hunts

Gov. Terry Branstad is expected to go against the advice of his own panel and take steps that would allow Iowa hunters this fall to shoot doves using lead shot.

Branstad will make the announcement at a press conference this Friday. The brief statement Thursday announcing the conference simply says he will take action “to correct a Senate failure.”

“I’ve been in this business for 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Marty Ryan, an Iowa lobbyist for the Lead is Poison Coalition, said about the governor’s pending actions today.

Lead is a toxin that can cause brain damage and death in both people and animals. While some studies conclude the full effects of leftover shot in meat are inconclusive or fail to prove an effect on humans, other studies conclude that scavengers like Eagles can become ill after ingesting lead shot remains.

The Iowa Natural Resources Commission, a citizens’ panel appointed by the governor, last year passed a rule to ban the ammunition. Branstad said last year that he would be OK with the lead ban if that was the consensus of the commission, according to commission minutes from testimony given by Conrad Clement, a Republican from Cresco that was appointed by the governor.

Clement could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The rule followed action taken in both the House and Senate last year that implemented a rarely-used legislative method to substitute a noncontroversial raccoon/grandparent hunting bill that had gone through the legislative process with dove hunting. The action bypassed public comment and legalized the hunts in Iowa for the first time since 1918.

The legislative process took place roughly 78 hours before Gov. Terry Branstad – a self-proclaimed advocate of open and transparent government – signed the bill into law.

Hunters and some gun advocates were upset with the lead ban ruling. In response, the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee agreed in August — about a month before the new dove season — to postpone enactment of the rule.

The Iowa House this year passed a resolution to nullify the rule and allow lead shot but the measure died in the Senate.

Branstad, Rep. Richard Arnold, R-Russell and Sen. Dick Dearden, D-Des Moines, hunted doves together on Sept. 1 near Dexter, the first day of the season. Dearden, who plans to attend today’s press event, estimated that he bagged between 75 and 100 doves during the season.

“There’s no evidence whatsoever that it hurts any population or any species of animals,” Dearden said, noting that the cost of alternative ammunition can be more expensive and harder to find. “Frankly, I think they (the commission) went way beyond” there role to set rules. “The NRC was making law.

Dearden acknowledged that eagles can become sick from eating other animals that have lead shot embedded in their bodies but said that isn’t a big concern since the overall eagle population is stable or growing.

“Eagles die every day. They get hit by cars or run into telephone wires. It just happens,” Dearden said.

Branstad is using the issue as a political wedge against the Senate instead of considering the overall health and welfare of residents and the environment, said Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo.

“The evidence is pretty clear that lead is toxic,” Dotzler said. “We took it out of paint. We took it out of gasoline and there’s evidence if you ingest this stuff you will have trouble.”